


Have yourself a Rainbow

by Suchthingbutnever



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, High School, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-29
Updated: 2012-11-29
Packaged: 2017-11-19 20:28:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,436
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/577326
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Suchthingbutnever/pseuds/Suchthingbutnever
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Highschool! AU: People can't seem to stop talking about it - “Lads, we’d like to promote the local gay league: Anti-discrimination, pro-freedom and, most important of all, Sex.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Have yourself a Rainbow

“Have yourself a rainbow!”

 

Zayn looked up from his pseudo-curry-chicken lunch box, eyebrows shooting up. Next to him, Harry gave a little snort and quickly hid behind his coke bottle. The guy with the huge, glittery Cardboard poster flashed a matching grin and wiggled a little.

“Lads, we’d like to promote the local gay league: Anti-discrimination, pro-freedom and, most important of all, Sex.”

 

Zayn blinked a few times and turned his head awkwardly towards his little clique of friends, who remained suspiciously quiet over their sandwiches. “Uh. Yeah.”

“We’re not queer.” Aiden finally said, giving a little shrug, flinching involuntarily at the bright neon-pink T-shirt the guy was wearing. “But, good job and all that, yeah?”

“Are you sure?” The guy crossed his tan arms over his chest and cocked his chin up. “Hold this, Liam.” And he shoved the poster towards the person who, Zayn only just noticed, was standing a few paces behind Mr. Rainbow. “You see, when regarding your own sexuality,” the guy whipped out an accusing forefinger and pointed it straight at Harry, “you mustn’t think in black and white.” And he reached back and jerked the lad behind him to the front and made a big gesture towards the glittery lettering: “But all the colors _in between_! Anyway, join the Rainbow League, nip by our headquarters and you’ll get a free T-shirt.” And with a flash of pink, the guy was gone.

 

For a second or two, everyone remained silent, until Harry broke out into a deep chuckle and slammed his coke down on the table. “Free T-shirts, lads.” And he got up and followed the Rainbow guy, who had already proceeded to the next table, announcing his arrival with a rather impressive hip thrust.

“Uh, yeah.” Zayn’s eyes snapped back up. The second lad, holding the giant poster, was still there and started to tug around in his bag with a flustered, lopsided smile. “If any of you are interested, I’ve a few flyers. Our… our headquarters are on the third floor of the science building, it’s, well, not hard to find.”

“Stop it, mate. We’re not gay.” Aiden shook his head and passed a glance towards Harry’s empty seat with a small frown. “Anyways,” and he turned away from the guy and took a big, masculine bite of his hoagie.

 

Zayn gave a nonchalant nod and took to his lunchbox again. From the corner of his eye, he could see that Liam-bloke shuffling towards the next table, where Mr. Rainbow was holding a speech towards a group of girls who broke out into cheers every few seconds or so. 

 

—-

 

“Are you fucking kidding me?”

 

Harry dropped his bag next to his seat and shrugged: “Free T-shirts.” The neon-pink was dotted with childish, yellow stars and a huge rainbow, saying: ‘Straight Up Gay’, it stretched over Harry’s torso rather snugly and Zayn gave a little shudder.

“So you’ve actually gone to the headquarters with Mr. Rainbow?”

“Louis showed me around a bit, yeah.”

“Haz. You’re not gay.” Zayn put a hand on his friends shoulder and scrunched up his forehead. It was much more a question than a statement, really.

“Says who?” Harry leaned back in his seat and gave a lazy grin. “We’re young, we explore, we try things.”

“Yeah, with girls.” Zayn gave a sigh and turned his attention back to the text book he had just opened, revealing the whole homework section unread. He quickly snatched up his text marker and started to randomly underline words and sentences.

“Louis and Liam asked me to their welcome-meeting.” Harry ruffled through his curls carelessly and tilted his head sideways. “Care to join?”

“It’s a gay union, Styles. You’re supposed to be homosexual to join.”

“See, there you go, Zaynekins, all constrained with social norms.” And Harry flashed the grin he was renowned for: half-pitying, half-playful, and just a bit provocative. And of course it got to Zayn, just the way it had the last four years.

 

That’s how he found himself sitting at the far end of a long table, listening to the happy buzz of people chatting and watching Harry slowly moving closer to Mr. Louis Rainbow, eventually letting the hand on his shoulder sliding down to the lower back, and perhaps even further down south, Zayn couldn’t really tell from the angle he was at.

There were surprisingly many students, most of them girls, even some Zayn recognized, and of whom he was sure were one-hundred-percent straight. His eyes skidded through a cluster of long blonde hair, in the middle of which stood that Liam-guy, smiling easily and braiding the fringe of Antonia Cox, who, admittedly, Zayn had spent most of the last few months fantasizing about.

 

What was it that made gay guys into such pussy magnets?

 

He quickly averted his gaze when Liam looked up from the blonde strands in his hands and gazed in his direction. He didn’t want people to think that he was interested in… stuff. He was here because he was a person who was willing to widen his horizons. And mostly because his best mate was obnoxiously good at getting on his nerves. 

 

“Liking it so far?” Harry flopped back onto his seat next to Zayn and gave a toothy grin.

“Watching you feeling Louis up? Yeah, definitely.” Zayn rolled his eyes, which only made Harry smile wider. “He’s hot.”

“You – oh, never mind.” Zayn cast a quick look across the room, where Louis had now joined the group of girls who were all giggling around Liam. Antonia Cox was clinging to his arm, pressing into his side without further thought. She would probably let any of the two get a grab of her tits, just to get their opinion on the ‘whether one was bigger than the other’ sort of issue.

 

So maybe Louis was good looking. Straight as he was, Zayn was definitely able to tell whether someone had the looks or not. He gave Harry a small nudge: “Stop staring at his arse.”

 

“But it’s such a nice arse.”

 

—-

 

Louis turned out to be the president, the founder _and_ the main sponsor of the whole organization, and he was one hell of a talker.

 

Zayn found himself slightly mesmerized with all the fancy hand-gestures and ever changing expressions: Louis had people nodding and clapping, making embarrassing noises of agreement. More than once, Zayn caught him throwing a cheeky glance at their end of the table, and he could immediately feel Harry sitting up a bit straighter unconsciously.

 

It was almost kind of cute.

 

They were all asked to join the next session, where even more free T-shirts were promised, in varying shades of pink, as Louis announced proudly. Than a list was handed out where names and e-mails were filled in – to keep everyone up to date on the spectacular program they had planned for the rest of the school year.

 

While the room dissolved into lively chatter once again, Zayn remained seated, pen in hand, and debated whether giving away his information would be alike to signing up.

“Uh, you finished?” It was that Liam-bloke, who had already gathered numerous other lists, and gave a little smile. Unlike Mr. Rainbow, his clothing wasn’t nearly as boisterous, Zayn noted. If he hadn’t been holding up the giant sparkly poster earlier on, he would’ve taken him for a normal lad. Not that gays weren’t normal, uh, never mind…

“I, ehm, yeah, sure,” Zayn noticed the moments of silence that had passed between them while he had been busy _observing_ things and quickly passed over the sheet. He gave an awkward cough and shrugged.

Liam skipped through the list and then smiled at him lightly: “You’re Jeremy, then?”

“Uh, no. Zayn, Zayn Malik.”

“Oh.” Liam frowned, “so you didn’t sign up – “

“I’m not gay.”

 

Liam looked slightly taken aback, his eyes scrunched up a little, but he quickly regained his composure and merely nodded. “Cool, I guess.”

Zayn felt a bit like smacking his forehead against the table. Coming here definitely wasn’t a very good idea, what the hell had he been thinking? He turned towards the other end of the room, where Harry was in engaged in an animated conversation with Louis, who had rested his flat palm on Harry’s chest. He threw them an angry look and then turned to find that Antonia Cox had appeared next to Liam, already clinging to his forearm.

“Li’s going to go shopping with us, aren’t you, Liam?” she threw her shiny blonde ponytail from one side to the other and gave little squeaks of excitement. Her tits bobbed up and down with every bouncy step she took and Zayn… Zayn just couldn’t make himself look away.

 

A few more girls joined in, all excited and discussing in shrieking voices about which mall was best to go to, but Liam just remained silent, fixing his eyes on Zayn with an unreadable gaze.

 

—-

 

“What is it now?”

 

Louis fell backwards unto the bed and covered himself with heaps of cushions. “Stop being so mopey all the time, it was a great success, wasn’t it? So many people came.” He gave a strangled cry of victory and punched the air.

 

“Harry came, too.” Liam put his phone to the side and nudged his friend with the tip of his toes.

 

“Yes. He. Did.” Louis grabbed his stuffed giraffe and gave it a hearty cuddle. “And he signed up too.”

 

“And gave you his cell phone number _and_ his landline, his twitter and facebook…” Liam waved an exasperated hand through the air, ignoring the huge needle that was poking at his guts from the inside out.  It was a big school, but he had wondered how he hadn’t noticed the two of them before, with their looks and smiles. Standing behind Louis with that vaguely embarrassing poster in hand, Harry’s curls and green eyes had captured him first, his lazy grin and relaxed posture.

 

But of course, he had gone for Louis without batting an eyelash at Liam. If there was ever a guy who was _that way_ , he immediately gravitated towards Louis’ loud laugh and easy way.

 

“You’re moping, Li.”

 

“Don’t call me that.” Liam frowned and shrugged off his friends soothing hand. He knew he’d been acting like a little brat soaking in self-pity ever since the welcome-meeting, but he couldn’t help it. Beneath all his practicality that had Louis appointing him ‘chief financial officer’ of their Union, he was a bit of a dreamer. And once he had laid eyes properly on that friend of Harry’s, Zayn, his head had been going wild with fantasies – partially because he was in the middle of a very, very long dry spell, but then again, because the boy was just plain gorgeous. He could already envision himself in bed alone, jerking off frantically to those lips and the slight stubble and…

 

“What is it?” Liam turned and let Louis capture him in an easy embrace. “C’mon, tell me.”

 

“S’nothing.” He mumbled into his best friends pink sweater. _It’s just that he’s not gay and he’s proven his point by staring relentlessly at Tonia’s cleavage._ Liam suddenly felt embarrassed by how excited he had felt when Zayn had turned up at the meeting, the bolt he had felt in his spine when the other boy had looked his way – while he really had only been checking out the girls.

 

“Hmmm.” Louis pushed Liam away for a bit and looked him straight in the eye. “D’you want to have sex then?”

“Louis! I’m. Not. Sleeping. With. You.”

“Why not? God knows you need it! What are friends for?”

 

“Just, no.”

 

—-

 

At third period math class the week after their first meeting, Louis stood up in the middle of a very boring algebra assignment and announced that the Rainbow League was to be joined with the schools feminist club, since they were both on about promoting freedom of choice, equality and safe sex. Celebrating this great new venture, a party was the only logical thing to consider.

 

The girls broke out into cheers and even some of the most macho-like thugs from the football, who normally didn’t take Louis all too seriously and overreacted when he came to watch one of their games, looked vaguely interested.

 

Louis skipped French to print new flyers in the teacher’s room, which he promptly pressed into Liam’s hands before lunch break.

 

That’s how he found himself sauntering after his best friend once again, passing out flyers and emphasizing that it was a party for everyone, not just gay people. He gladly passed half the stack over to Tonia and her friends when they came skipping over excitedly, but immediately regretted doing so when he caught a glimpse of glossy brown curls, and yes – Zayn was right next to Harry, chewing away on something brown and mushy, looking bored and gorgeous as ever.

 

Liam sensed Tonia turning towards the tables they hadn’t reached yet, and he quickly took a step forward. Something hard and jealous inside his chest rejected the idea of her handing out a flyer to Zayn violently. They might start talking, might like each other and go on a date, possible snog on the queer-feminist party Liam was going to organize.

 

And knowing himself, Liam would stand back and hold their glasses while they sucked each other dry.

 

“Hey!” he made himself smile despite the sickening image he had in his head and tugged out a few leaflets. “Party next week, rainbow themed, but it’s not compulsory.” He added, when he saw that Aiden-guy frown. “Lot’s of hot girls coming.”

He felt Zayn’s eyes snap up to him and immediately tensed.

 

“Great, as long as Lou’s there.” Harry had snatched a flyer and grinned at the image of Ernie and Bert holding hands.

“He’s the initiator, you can join and help organizing, if you like.” Liam offered. He liked Harry, the boy was fun to be around and he seemed to really like Louis.

“Sure thing! You coming, Zaynekins?” Harry turned towards his friend and Liam felt his cheeks heating up at the nickname.

“We’ll see.” Zayn shrugged a little and Aiden snorted, nudging the two other guys at the table. “Haz’ trying hard to get Malik all gayed up.”

 

Laughter followed and Liam turned away, dragging his feet towards the next table.

 

—-

 

All people were talking about was that gay party, Zayn noticed.

 

Harry was too busy following Mr. Louis Rainbow everywhere, setting up things, ordering things, printing some more, and most important of all, flirting absolutely shamelessly.

Even Aiden had admitted he was going to nip by and take a look at the queer party, and yeah, it was true that most of the female student body was going to be there, even the really hot ones who weren’t in that what-was-it-feminist-club.

 

Zayn got put in defense at football, which gave him a little boost of self-confidence. Keeping the bench warm really wasn’t that fun, even this early into the season.

 

“You really should come by sometime, you know.” Harry had made one of his rare appearances to cheer for Zayn at his match, leaving Louis and the never-stopping preparations alone for a little while. “They’re all cool.”

“Dunno.” Zayn buttoned up his shirt and kept his eyes fixed on the ground.

“Are you scared, Zaynekins?”

 

Of course, half an hour later, Zayn found himself fixing little rainbow shaped lanterns with strings to dangle on. Louis was involved in a heated discussion about how the dance floor should be marked, or if it should be marked at all, Harry standing right behind him, smiling almost indulgently.

People were cheerful, chatty and laughing, and somehow, Zayn found himself smiling along. His gaze caught Antonia Cox carrying a few boxes, blouse half open, pink bra showing through. He felt a little jerk at the pit of his stomach and decided that, maybe, this was a pretty good idea after all.

 

“Uh, hi.”

 

He already knew that voice. “Hey Liam.”

The lad gave a little start at his name and then smiled, almost blushing. “Here’re a few boxes for the finished lanterns, just remember to place them correctly, so they won’t get squished in.”

“No problem.” Zayn continued with his work, eyes following Liam. He was, once again, dressed in an understated grey T-shirt, a screaming contrast to another blonde lad who had just bounced over, wearing one of Louis’ free T-shirts.

 

Weird, maybe Liam wasn’t even gay. He had only seen the boy with Louis, fair enough, but then again, Zayn himself never really left Harry’s side if he could help it, and his best friend’s sexuality was pretty… questionable.

Zayn thought back to their last conversation and the eternal awkwardness that had stretched on. He suddenly felt stupid – Liam was probably just trying to be nice. He could easily pass as the type of guy who always let you copy their homework, remembered your mum’s birthday and got friend-zoned by 90% of all girls available. Actually, he doubtlessly was that kind of guy, Zayn decided.

 

His new realization had him finishing the last few lanterns quickly and he carried the boxes over to where Liam was talking to Antonia Cox about a dress code, or something.

“Finished!” he announced, wiggled the rustling contents of his boxes a bit and gave Liam a hopefully friendly smile.  Antonia Cox gave a delighted squeal and peaked inside, blouse stretching over her chest while doing so. “How cute! Good job, there.”

“Oh, I only did the tying part.” Zayn forced himself to look away from Antonia’s boobs and threw Liam an apologetic smile.

 

He just couldn’t help it – dry spell, and the girl was well fit.

 

—-

 

“How do I look?”

 

“Like you’re going to get laid.”

 

Harry nodded to himself, grinning smugly and opening the top few buttons of his shirt. Zayn sat on his bed, still bent over their history assignment Harry was successfully ignoring.

“It’s not like Louis’ going to say no, is it?” he added, sarcastically.

 

“Still worth the effort,” Harry double-checked himself in the mirror, ruffling through his curls, squinting his eyes. “I want him for more than one random fuck.”

“Too much information!” Zayn threw his pen down and pretended to be disgusted. “I don’t want to know what you and Mr. Rainbow’ll be up to.”

“Anyway, you’re not invited to watch.”

“Thank fucking god.”

 

—-

 

Liam was nervous.

 

He really didn’t know what he was nervous about, but his eyes kept dancing back to the entrance of the hall. He gripped his beer bottle and kept receiving congratulations on how awesome this party was and what not. Tonia and her friends had tried talking him into wearing a rainbow costume, since he was one of the few guys who actually were gay, but he had decided that after Zayn had smiled at him like _that_ , he couldn’t risk looking all stupid and glittery.

 

“ _Haz_!”

Louis’ happy shout had Liam spinning around. There they were, Harry, who was already channeling all his attention on Louis and next to him, admiring the rainbow lanterns dangling from the ceiling, was Zayn, looking like he was asking to be shoved up against some wall with his shirt hanging half-open.

 

Liam quickly shook his head, willing the dry-spell-thoughts to go away.

 

Zayn turned, caught his gaze and lifted his hand in greeting. He started making his way over, pushing through a few clusters of scantily clad girls with bunny ears. “You okay?”

“Yeah, I’m great. Great.” Liam felt an idiotic grin stretch out on his face. “Looking good!” He immediately regretted the compliment. But Zayn just laughed and clapped him on his back.

 

It turned out that being abandoned by your best friend was, in fact, a binding factor. Liam had to keep reminding himself who he was already having a third beer with, they talked football, whining about the Champions League and ManU getting their arse kicked, those bloody Germans and City Fans being traitors.

 

It was fun, it was good times and Zayn didn’t seem like he was going to saunter off and leave Liam sitting alone. They took turns fetching fresh drinks and sometime around half past twelve, Zayn started bringing out stupid toasts that had Liam laughing himself silly.

“To my mum’s half-arsed attempts at cleaning my room!”

The bottles met with a clink.

“To best friends shagging in the men’s loo!”

Zayn gasped laughing: “Hell no, I don’t want that imagery! Constant cock-block!”

“I know, right, I could never sleep with Louis, even if he keeps suggesting…”

 

It took Liam some time to register that he had said something wrong. Zayn leant back in drunken shock, shook his head a few times: “So you _are_ gay?” 

Liam kept to silence and focused on not letting his sudden emotions show. Knowing that snogging Zayn senseless wasn’t an option already hurt quite a bit, now realizing that he’d only been so easy-going and carefree with Liam was because he’d thought he was straight?

 

That was just too much.

 

—-

 

Zayn stumbled through the colorful, dancing, head-bobbing crowd and cursed the sixth, seventh and eighth beer he’d had. It was eight, right? He felt a pinch of guilt somewhere in his abdomen, eyes roaming the hall to see whether he could spot Liam anywhere, so he could go and apologize, clarify that he wasn’t homophobic or anything, for heaven’s sake, his best mate was probably off having hopefully safe sex with another, admittedly quite androgenic, male.

 

It wasn’t meant that way!

 

Just, Liam had known his football. He was a fellow red, and he had gulped his beer like any other chap… the more Zayn had gotten to known him, the more he’d assumed himself to be right – Liam was a nice, heterosexual guy, who didn’t really know his way with chicks.

 

Well, apparently he wasn’t. 

 

Zayn gave up, he sighed. It wasn’t the most comfortable thing to know that a nice lad out there thought the worst of him and was probably very pissed off, but he just couldn’t find Liam, for god’s sake! He stopped and threw back his drink, not caring when he bumped into something soft.

 

“Oh, wow! You’re Harry’s friend!”

Zayn looked up confusedly. There it was, the cleavage. In a really, really tight top, looking all squeezed and ample. “Yeah, yeah. That’s me.”

“You did the lanterns, didn’t you?”

“Just the… yeah, yeah I did.” Zayn waved away any distraction.

“Love them, so cute, lovely!”

“Yeah, definitely.”

 

—-

 

Liam felt a bit pathetic.

 

He felt like a little girl, overreacting. He was sort of torn between going back and apologizing to Zayn for being so touchy-feely, and shrinking back to nurse that invisible ache on his chest. 

 

He crossed his arms and took to just numbly watching the dancing, moving crowd. As to the rainbow theme, loads of people had paired up in same-sex couples, wiggling along in a silly way that suggested, no, they weren’t really homosexual at all, but only having their bit of fun based on the idea. He watched Dani, a friend on Tonia’s, put her hands suggestively around another petite girl, laughing loudly. Next to them, there was an actual couple, all loved-up and drooling, and then there was a guy and a girl…

 

Oh.

 

So maybe Liam had thought that watching your secret crush snog someone else would be painful – it was worse than that. Tonia was way beyond drunk, judging on how she stumbled every few steps, and Zayn…Zayn was just so busy gripping her boobs. He used one hand to keep her close, the other one roaming about.

 

In that one moment, Liam just hated life in general.

 

He hated the fact that Antonia was so damn attractive, that Louis was such a tease and too busy shagging, that he himself was so damn queer and that Zayn couldn’t just be gay as well and fall desperately in love with him. Fucking hell, he hated it, all of it –

 

“Woah, alright?”

Liam had to wipe his eyes to get a clear view of the blonde hair that had appeared before him and thankfully blocked the view of Zayn and Tonia dry humping. “Mate?”

It was Niall, in his huge Mushroom costume, and Liam couldn’t help but hug him fiercely. The boy would be the last one on this planet to judge him, with his sweet personality and understanding smile – that, and his preference for big, leaking cocks, as he had once put it, when a girl just wouldn’t get the hint.

 

“S’nothing.” Liam heard himself sniff. “Just fine and dandy.” And then, to his immediate regret, he pointed an accusing finger towards the grinding pair.

“Oh.” Niall huffed a breath. Then he swiftly turned Liam away from the scene and made his way to the bar. “Let’s take your mind off that, shall we?”

 

“Yeah.” Liam wiped his face with the flat of his palm a few times over, “yeah, sure.”

 

—-

 

Zayn had sobered remarkably.

 

He was now standing at the entrance, with Harry and Louis, whose hands were still managed to stay tangled obscenely, while Louis bid a few of the leaving people goodbye. The hall was still relatively crowded, and Zayn felt like getting one last beer for the road, he’d probably kip at Harry’s, considering that his parents weren’t home…

 

“You leaving any soon?”

Harry just grunted, lips already reattached to Louis’ neck. “Get another tequila or something.”

Zayn sighed at the public display of affection, stomach once again twisting with guilt when he thought of Liam’s expression from earlier on. God, how many hours was that ago? He obediently made his way to the bar and ordered something random off the carte, eyes skipping through the crowd. There was Aiden, deeply engaged in a seemingly gripping conversation with some girl, so the quick nip in had turned out to be quite worth it.

“There you go!” The barkeeper, a guy with a pink wig and shades on winked at him, “A double.” He turned towards the pair besides Zayn: “You love birds want anything else?”

No reply came, and Mr. Pink gave a theatrical sigh. Zayn shrugged in amusement and turned to look, and couldn’t help but choke and cough on his drink.

 

Liam definitely hadn’t come across as someone who could kiss like that, but well, he obviously could. The lithe, blonde boy in his arms had both his hands buried in the strands of soft brown hair and made small mewling noises that sent shivers down Zayn’s back.

 

What the hell?

 

It wasn’t an ugly sight, but it disturbed him more than he would ever admit. Yeah, Liam was gay. And out. Snogging other male human beings.

 

Was Zayn homophobe after all? He hated the sight of it.

 

—-

 

The party basically made the Rainbow League, and Louis, into the new hot topic, and people were piling in to sign up, claiming that they were interested in gay rights and universal suffrage.

Truth was that it was simply cool and fun to hang with them, so that even Aiden took an afternoon off football to get himself informed.  

 

Zayn steered clear of the load of them, meaning that he saw considerably less of Harry. He didn’t even know why, but the sight of Liam making out with that blonde guy had haunted him for quite a few days. It wasn’t that he had anything against men kissing men… it was just, well, inexplicably, it felt wrong.

 

“Have yourself a rainbow!”

 

And yet again, they were promoting something new – except that there were other people handing out leaflets now, Louis and Liam probably too busy being popular and gay. 

 

“’m not gay.” Zayn grunted at the girl.

“Now, now. This isn’t just about homosexuality – it’s about embracing yourself. Don’t think in black and white – think about all the colors in between!” This girl had obviously remembered at least half of Louis’ speeches. “Come and join us for tea and positive Sex talk today!”

 

Zayn just shook his head and walked away swiftly.

 

He waited until the official tea session was well over before he slowly climbed the stairs of the science building, peeking into the main quarters of the Rainbow League, now decorated with animal cushions, bright posters and quotes of famous women and gay activists. Most of the people were already gone, leaving behind a few to clean up. Harry and Louis were nowhere to be seen.

 

He spotted Liam by the sink, rinsing the used tea cups, chatting to some girl. His heart did a double leap and Zayn quickly went through the words he had put together in his head. He would just apologize for reacting like a total homophobic jerk and tell Liam that he would actually really enjoy just hanging out with him some time, maybe catch a league game?

 

That was when Liam turned around and saw him standing by the door, his eyes grew wide, but he went over anyways.

“Harry went off with Lou, to, uh…”

Zayn cleared his throat and nodded quickly. “Uh, yeah. I wanted to talk to you, anyway, so, yeah…”

Liam looked slightly surprised, “Great, uh. Want to head out for a bit?”

“Sure.”

 

They walked down the vacated corridor of the science building together, stopping at a niche between a classroom door and a wide window. Zayn raided his head for something casual and nice to say, how come he had talked to Liam just fine when he’d assumed the lad to be straight? And now it was all… weird and awkward.

“So.”

“Yeah, so.”

Liam wasn’t looking his way, either. His eyes were trained on some spot in the air behind Zayn, and he suddenly noticed that his eyes were a very rich, chocolaty brown color. Zayn shook his head quickly – that was totally beside the point. “Uhm, I just wanted to, you know, apologize.”

Liam looked up, this time truly taken aback. “I… no need to, you didn’t do anything wrong…”

“No, no, it’s just that, I assumed you weren’t… uh, that you were het. So I was a bit surprised is all, I didn’t mean it to be… you know, all wrong.” Zayn took a breath of air, and added: “You were really fun to talk to.”

He felt like that statement was necessary, so Liam would be reminded how great they had got on that night. The image of him kissing that blonde guy flickered back in front of his eyes, and he shook his head again. Just, _no_.

 

“It’s okay, man. I overreacted.” Liam was smiling when Zayn looked up again, “It’s fine.”

“Cool.” Was all he managed in return. He somehow really wanted to mention the blonde lad and how he had seen them going at it at the bar, but it would be weird if he just randomly threw that in, wouldn’t it?

“So, d’you want to have Tonia’s number? Because she told be you didn’t exchange numbers or anything.”

It took Zayn a good five seconds to get that Liam was talking about Antonia Cox, and he left his mouth hanging open in surprise. “Oh, _oh_. Nah. Not necessary.” Somehow, his craving for her tits had ceased since the party.

“Okay,” Liam said, now looking somehow unsure. “So, I’ll get back to… yeah.”

“Yeah. Great. I’ll see you around, then?”

“Yeah, see you.”

 

—-

 

“Why didn’t you tell me earlier?!”

 

Louis slammed his fist down on the table and spilled his hot chocolate everywhere. Liam sighed and got up to fetch a few tissues. “Because, you were too busy shagging Harry. And I wasn’t really keen on walking in on you two.”

“But, this is of great emergency! So tell me again: He didn’t even want her number?”

“No… he just –“

“And he came by the headquarters just to talk to you?”

“Yeah. I guess.”

 

Louis took a sip of his left-over Cocoa and nodded to himself thoughtfully. “Liam, Liam, Liam. I think we might have the case of deep self-denial here.”

“Zayn’s not gay.” Liam persisted, shaking his head, eyes fixed on his math homework. “He definitely likes women.”

“Well, it’s not impossible to like both women and men, is it?” Louis clapped his hands in glee. “And you’ve definitely caught his attention.”

“If you say so,” Liam gave a shrug and frowned doubtfully. Louis was always overly optimistic, but considering the fact that he was currently having great sex and was probably the most popular person in school, it wasn’t all too surprising.

 

“Do you want your man, Payne? If yes, we’d better start working on it!”

 

—-

 

Liam spent the next few days fretting over how to look and what to say, feeling stupid and inexperienced. When he actually walked towards the table at lunch, his stomach did a double flip. Harry immediately lifted a hand to greet him, whilst Zayn just looked a bit startled. The rest of the guys clapped him on the back and asked about, starting a conversation on football almost right away.

 

That made it a lot easier for Liam. He relaxed a bit, even having a few bites of his salad. Though he surely didn’t miss the glances Zayn kept throwing him while poking around in his brownish mush. Maybe, just maybe, Louis was right.

 

The break passed without anything extraordinary happening, the guys filed out for class or yet another break and Harry went to search for his better half, as he jokingly said. Soon, Liam was left alone with Zayn, just as he had hoped and dreaded.

 

“So, uh, how’s your boyfriend?”

 

Liam felt his head snap up. What? What boyfriend? “What boyfriend?”

“The one you were… oh, never mind.” Zayn had flushed a lovely crimson shade and kept poking his food violently. “Never mind!” he said again, when Liam wouldn’t look away.

“What are you talking about?” he had to repeatedly convince himself that reaching out and stroking those heated cheeks wasn’t a very clever thing to do.

“The blonde one. You know, the one you were kissing, the other week.”

Liam blinked, then laughed: “Niall? Niall’s just a friend!” He couldn’t believe it – Zayn had seen him kissing Niall that eventful night, and assumed that they were dating and what not!

“Sure didn’t look like it.” Zayn mumbled, and Liam felt his chest fill up with something very fluttery at his grudging tone.

“We were just drunk, Zayn. Just like you were.” He almost reminded him.

“You mean Antonia Cox?”

“Yeah!”

“Never really talked to her.”

 

The butterflies nearly exploded in Liam’s stomach.

 

—-

 

“Awesome.” Louis sat with his glasses perched on his nose, and nodded thoughtfully. “He really isn’t interested in her. You go, girl. You go.”

 

Liam just sighed at that.

 

The next time he saw Zayn, they were preparing one of their positive sex talk sessions, and the lad joined in to lay out biscuits, looking incredibly adorable while doing so. He began discussing drawing a XXL picture of Ernie and Bert on the blank spot of the wall, looking oh so serious and gorgeous nonetheless.

Liam felt a bit pathetic at how hard he was crushing.

 

They met up after school the week after, Zayn having mentioned that he was failing physics, and Liam dropping that it was his best subject. And it went so well that it made Louis almost a bit suspicious.

 

“Man, what would I do without you.” Zayn closed his books with a loud snap and stretched back. His eyes twinkled and Liam wanted to touch his light stubble so bad he nearly choked. “I’ll treat you to ice cream, or something.”

Liam declined and bought his own ice cream, feeling like the king of the world.

 

It went on and on for quite a bit, Zayn a bit upset for being put back on reserves, Liam needing help with an essay on a topic Zayn already had before, going to the football together, visiting bars occasionally for the odd Champions league match, being frustrated together, celebrating victories, etcetera.

 

It could’ve gone on forever.

 

—-

 

Zayn wouldn’t lie that it felt almost normal when the words ‘My gay best friend’ passed his mind for the first time.

 

It was between lunch break, when they were all seated at a table together, even that Niall-chap, whom he somehow disliked a tiny bit, that the thought crossed his mind. Not that he didn’t do anything with Harry anymore – it was just that their focuses had shifted a bit. Nobody ever said it out loud, but it was more than obvious that Harry and Louis were dating, and having a friend taken and claimed was different than being two single lads who just mucked around together.

 

That was exactly what he thought when they had met up at Harry’s place, the four of them, and Mr. Louis Rainbow and just started kissing his best friend then and there. Liam shrugged an motioned Zayn to leave the room, and the went down to the kitchen together, not bothering to hide their embarrassed grins.

 

Zayn went and got them two beers from the fridge, and Liam started giving a little speech of complaint about their supposedly best friends who just couldn’t keep it in their pants. Zayn placed the beers on the counter, listening to Liam’s deep, soothing voice go on about decency and restraint, when his eyes passed an old flyer that was pinned on to the fridge with magnets.

 

“Have yourself a rainbow!” said the big bold letters, said Ernie and Bert, who were hugging intimately. And somehow, Zayn heard Louis’ voice in his head: “Think about all the colors in between!”

 

“Yeah.” He mumbled to himself. “Pink, and all that.”

 

He turned to Liam, whose eyes were suddenly very intensely chocolate brown again, and felt something churn in the pit of his stomach. He reached out a shuddering hand and cupped Liam’s cheek, feeling the pulse of the other boy beneath his fingers.

 

“Uh.” He said. “I’m not gay, you know.”

 

Liam was suddenly very close, lashes long and mesmerizing, breath minty like chewing gum. “Cool.”

And then the distance closed between them and a few moments later, there was a crash when Liam slipped from the stool, taking half the kitchen with him.

 

Zayn knelt down beside him and felt his heart beating in his throat. The leaflet had come loose and landed on Liam’s chest, and the both just stared on for a minute or two. Then Zayn leant down, pressing his lips to Liam’s, sandwiching the flyer between them.

 

—-

 

“I knew your friend was a closet case.”

 

“C’mere, Lou.”

 

“I knew it!”

 

“Shut up.”


End file.
